


National Pudding Day

by vintageginger



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Have you ever embarrassed yourself in front of your crush, I wrote this fic for me but y'all can read it if you want, Rated T for swearing, such as- accidentally throwing a whole cup of pudding on them?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-02
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2020-02-15 21:52:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18678055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vintageginger/pseuds/vintageginger
Summary: There it was in the very middle, placard shining brightly as if it was embossed in actual gold leaf. Speed walking up to the counter she didn't notice the very large presence flanking her from the other side until she reached the display of puddings, hand bumping someone else's.I don't care if its Captain America himself, she thought to herself,this pudding ismine.Following the hand, up the arm and shoulder it connected to, she found herself looking into the steely glare of a one Bucky Barnes. Sending him a glare of her own, she set her jaw before speaking to him."Your murder face isn't going to work on me Barnes, I'm leaving this room with that dish of tapioca."





	National Pudding Day

**Author's Note:**

> This is all inspired by that scene from Hey Arnold! when Helga spills pudding on Arnold and says, "I love him, and yet I just dumped a dish of tapioca on him."
> 
> Purely self-indulgent, I hope at least one other person on this planet enjoys it.

June 26th. National Pudding Day. The Avengers compound upstate was serving every variety of pudding they could find during lunch. Some flavors were in more demand than others, and she knew her beloved tapioca would be claimed before she could claim a dish if she didn't hurry.

Maybe she should have been more aware of her surroundings, especially for an elite operative hired by the _Avengers_. Maybe she shouldn't have let that beautiful tapioca pudding dish give her tunnel vision. 

But as she weaved through the crowd hovering around all the chocolate puddings and the stand of toppings to add to the little bowls, she couldn't help but narrow her focus to one thing: _tapioca_.

There it was in the very middle, placard shining brightly as if it was embossed in actual gold leaf. Speed walking up to the counter she didn't notice the very large presence flanking her from the other side until she reached the display of puddings, hand bumping someone else's.

_I don't care if its Captain America himself_ , she thought to herself, _this pudding is **mine**_.

Following the hand, up the arm and shoulder it connected to, she found herself looking into the steely glare of a one Bucky Barnes. Sending him a glare of her own, she set her jaw before speaking to him.

"Your murder face isn't going to work on me Barnes, I'm leaving this room with that dish of tapioca."

She hadn't seen him around much lately, something about an arm upgrade here, ops mission there, all water cooler chatter that didn't really matter much at the moment. That is, besides the fact that she was now having a glaring contest with the man she had a stupid juvenile crush on. These were not optimal mission variables.

"And what's a field agent going to do to the Winter Soldier to get it? I haven't had tapioca pudding since before the War, doll, _please_." His gaze had softened to a near-perfect puppy dog pout. And if it weren't for the insincere tears welling up in his eyes, she might have believed him. _Those stupid, big, beautiful blue eyes_ , she thought to herself bitterly.

"You stole the whole batch when Steve made some two months ago, liar. He promised to save me some and you made off with the whole pot. Now if you'll excuse me, _my_ pudding awaits me."

Taking a step forward, she reached out to scoop up the bowl of glorious pudding off the display. Silently rejoicing that her delicious little gelatinous baby was coming home with her, she didn't even notice Bucky's hand reach out for her wrist.

"Wait," he cried, "Maybe we can spli--" but it was too late. 

With great horror and morbid fascination, she watched as the pudding dish popped out of her hand, the same arm that Bucky grasped to keep her from leaving. It even looked beautiful and regal as it flew through the air, angled directly at Bucky's chest. No, higher--His _neck_.

_Oh God,_ she thought to herself, _I can't believe I'm going to die at the hands of the Winter Soldier, over a lunchroom spat about pudding._

The dish, now empty, slid down his chest and un-suctioned itself from the pudding, falling to the floor with a hollow clatter that she swore she would hear in her nightmares for months. Because that's what this was after all, wasn't it? A horrible, horrible nightmare. Bucky Barnes, the man she'd tried her hardest to ogle from afar, the man she had a huge stupid crush on, was now covered in tapioca pudding.

Looking up at his face in horror, his expression was neutral, which terrified her more than any other expression he could have made. Neutral was a ticking time bomb. Neutral was an unknown variable. For someone who's job was to compensate for every variable possible on a mission, her fight or flight instinct was short circuiting. 

"I am _so_ sorry," she pleaded, taking a step backwards. _If I have to run, I want a head start._

His face was still like _that_ , though. Impassive, looking like he was trying to decide if he was going to rip her spine out of her body like Sub-Zero. Taking a few more steps backwards, she can feel how pale her face looks to everyone in the lunch room, who are _definitely_ watching.

"I-I-I-" she stammers, close to ten feet away from him, "I'll just disappear forever now."

Making a running start towards the exit, she calls a quick, "Enjoy the pudding," over her shoulder, completely missing the tiny smile that ghosts over his features. 

Finally making it to a supply closet on a different level, she figured she'd be safe hiding for a few hours. The earpiece crackles to life with Natasha's voice, laughing about how she saw the cafeteria footage and wanted to congratulate her on finally making a move.

Yanking the piece out of her ear (because she can't very well _talk_ in her secret hiding place, lest she be _compromised_ ), she pulls out her phone and starts furiously typing a text to Natasha.

Her: This isn't funny, Nat! I'm mortified! And also terrified.

Nat: He's not going to fly off the handle over pudding. Besides, haven't you been trying to actually TALK to him?

Her: Almost any other situation would be better than this! Oh god, Nat. **I love him and yet! I just dumped a dish of tapioca on him!**

Her: I have to go into Witness Protection or something. 

Her: I gotta run away forever. 

Her: If he murders me, it was nice knowing you! 

Nat: He's not going to murder you over PUDDING

Nat: Also I know you're in the supply closet on level 6.

Nearly dropping her phone in a bucket of mopping solution, she looked around the room frantically, suddenly remembering FRIDAY's omnipresence around the compound. 

"FRIDAY," she whispered quickly, "Cloak my location to everyone except Natasha for the next 12 hours. Unless it's an emergency."

Her: I've hid my signal for the next few hours.

Her: Don't tell anyone where I am.

Her: I mean it!!! 

She receives one more text from Natasha but deletes the notification before she can see what the message actually says. Switching her phone to airplane mode, she decides she's going to play tetris until her thumbs bleed or Bucky finds her and kills her or night falls and she can safely leave the closet under cover of darkness--whichever happens first.

It's been hours, she realizes as her phone is closing in on a dead battery. Briefly turning her phone off airplane mode, she waits for any stray notifications before finally opening the message Nat sent earlier.

"He's gonna find you anyway," it says, "No one can outrun the Winter Soldier ;)"

"This is so humiliating," she whispers to herself fiercely, rubbing the heels of her hands into her eyes. The added pressure doesn't calm her nerves, only briefly dissolves her vision before she re-focuses on the dark supply closets shelves.

Realizing her butt has fallen asleep, she finally stands up, deciding that it's had to be long enough for him to stop looking for her, or at least be in another corner of the compound.

Taking a deep breath, she slowly opened the door to her temporary sanctuary and looked both ways into the hallway. Nothing right, nothing left. Sighing in relief she took three steps into the hallway before hearing something drop behind her. _Of course he was waiting in the fucking rafters_ , she chides herself, spooked into another sprint down the hall...a half-second too late.

He's wrapped an arm around her middle and lifted her up off the ground before she can make it to the next doorway, not saying a word as he carries her towards the elevator bay. The silence is awful, tears a hole through any remaining peace of mind she has left, and she rambles the whole way.

Natasha is suspiciously waiting in the elevator that comes to collect them, smiling at her under Bucky's arm like a misbehaving lapdog.

"I know you had something to do with this and I will never forgive you, Natasha," she hisses, staring at her best friends smirk.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she replied demurely, getting off at the next floor, "but I'll see you later!"

She's taken to grumbling, cursing the day and Natasha and tapioca pudding and the Avengers for this stupid compound even existing in the first place. Before she knows what she's saying, a gripe about "stupid, hot Bucky Barnes and his big, dumb, beautiful eyes," slips out, and she prays he didn't hear her but she knows he did.

The elevator brings them back down to the floor with the cafeteria, and suddenly she just feels so _done_ with the day. If he was going to break her legs couldn't he just get it over with?

Sighing in his arm in defeat, she suddenly feels exhausted and humiliated and wants to crawl into a hole and die. 

"Can you just throw me down the garbage chute please," she murmurs, swallowing thickly, not noticing Bucky's head turning sharply towards her in surprise, "Or just like, kick my ass and get it over with."

Suddenly he stops, and the whole world rotates before she feels herself abruptly deposited in a chair of some kind, roughly pushed forward with a table in front of it.

When her vision completely refocuses she sees two dishes of pudding on the table, and Bucky settling into an identical chair in front of her. Panic completely envelops her and she starts crying before she knows what's come over her.

"Oh god you're going to _poison me_ ," she cries, hands coming up to cover her eyes, "With some fucked up Hunger Games hemlock shit? I'd rather you break my legs, _please_ ," she begs, moving her hand to plead with him face to face.

Only to find him frozen with a spoon of pudding in his mouth. He's shocked, to say the least, but tries to lift the corner of his mouth in as friendly of a half-smile as he can manage.

"I'm not gonna kill you," he says, lowering his empty spoon from his mouth, "it's just pudding."

He nudges the dish closer towards her and she spends a few seconds looking between the dish and his face, trying to decide if this is actually happening.

"You're pretty quick, y'know," he said, trying to break the ice, "I've seen you running drills but I think that might be a new personal record. But you should've cloaked your tracker _before_ you made it to the closet."

Sighing deeply, she rested an elbow on the armrest of the chair, bringing her hand up to hold her forehead. "This is extremely embarrassing," she whispered, "humiliating, even."

Bucky laughs at her as he's scooping another spoonful of pudding out of the dish, and she briefly loses the feeling in her finger tips as she listens to him. Decides she'd embarrass herself every day if it'd make him laugh like that.

"It'll be funny in a day or two," he says, pointing at the dish in front of her, "now are you going to eat that or not!"

The smile on his face is open and friendly and warm, and she hesitantly picks up the spoon, looking back and forth again between the dish and his face.

"So," she says, cautiously dipping the spoon into the pudding, "Do you stakeout _everyone_ who dumps pudding on you, or am I special?"

He laughs again, and she smiles shyly as she shoves the pudding into her mouth, sighing in contentment as she feels the tapioca bubbles on her tongue.

"Well," he starts, "I can't remember the last time anybody's dumped tapioca on me, so you're special all right."

Nearly choking on the pudding in her mouth, she winces, swallowing before opening her mouth to apologize again.

"I'm really sorry," she says, "I didn't mean to, and I should have stayed and helped clean up."

Reaching across the table, he scoops up the hand _not_ occupied by a spoon, and gives it a gentle squeeze, "You can stop apologizing, I'm not even mad. I already think it's hilarious."

Groaning, she threw her head back in defeat before frowning, "That's easy for you to say, you're not the one who dumped pudding all over their crush."

They both froze, staring at each other in surprise and horror, respectively. 

"Oh my god," she wheezed, "can this day get any _more_ embarrassing?"

Bucky swallowed thickly, staring at the pained look on her face.

"Look, I really appreciate the pudding, but can I _please_ go wallow in self-pity in my room for the next twenty years," she urges, trying to gently pull her hand out of Bucky's.

He re-sets his grip on her wrist, not enough to be painful, but firm enough to let her know that he doesn't want her to go anywhere.

"I was happy it was you, y'know," he starts, making eye contact, "I've noticed you training with Natasha and-you're really good, you know that? And I've never seen anyone so comfortable with a knife." He pauses, trying to parse his next words carefully, "I kept trying to find a way to talk to you, but I keep stupidly picking the driest subjects. Then delivering them even dryer."

She can't help but think of all her previous interactions with him. The gruffly delivered request for directions to rooms right down the hall from her. Asking if there were water fountains nearby when he had a full water bottle in hand. She'd thought it was some weird lasting memory problem from the brain-washing, but no, he was _flirting_ with her.

"Oh my _god_ ," she whispers, staring at him in disbelief.

"Yeah," he said, looking away sheepishly, "I was so excited by the idea of talking to you like a normal human that I ended up forgetting to ask you out. What's the phrase? Missing the forest for the trees?"

Relaxing her arm, she scooted her chair a little closer to the table, trying her best to smile warmly despite the bright red blush settling over her face.

"We're seeing the forest now, I guess," she said, dipping her spoon back into the pudding.

Bucky laughed, relaxing his grip on her wrist to scoop her hand back up in his.

"What are you doing on July 14th," he asked, a hopeful look on his face.

"Not sure," she replied, looking skeptical but still playing along, "Why do you ask?"

"Well," he shrugged, looking sheepish, "July _15th_ is National Tapioca Pudding Day, and I have it on good authority that the cafeteria is going to be serving it all day. I was wondering if you'd like to join me in," He paused dramatically, leaning in close over the table, " _Stealing all of it_."

She matched his closeness, a wicked grin settling over her features.

"A pudding heist? It's a date."

As she leaned closer to press a kiss to his cheek, she couldn't be more thankful for dumping that dish on him earlier.


End file.
